


Spirits From the Stars

by raven_aorla



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, Diplomacy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, First Contact, Friendship, Gen, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Recovery, Teamwork, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25771366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: The Guardians of the Galaxy are tasked with warning a pre-contact planet that aliens exist and might attack them one day soon. The Gaang, as well as their world, are still healing from the years when half their population was mysteriously gone. When the two groups have to work together, they find a remarkable amount of common ground.
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Crossover Friendships - Relationship, Gamora/Peter Quill, Groot & Rocket Raccoon, Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Nebula & Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Thor & Guardians Of The Galaxy Team, Toph Beifong/Haru (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 83





	Spirits From the Stars

Nova Prime had contacted the Guardians two days ago to hire them for a job. Their location at the time was relatively close to a backwater, pre-contact planet in deep space that wasn’t quite in danger yet, but intel suggested there was enough of a chance of them being invaded by an opportunistic, resource-seeking civilization that it was worth intervening. The galaxy had been through enough in recent years. So although it was unorthodox for the Nova Corps to sanction a mission like this to an uncontacted planet, preserving vulnerable civilizations at all tech levels was a top priority. Having an Asgardian royal in their party helped it feel more legitimate.

Objective one: Land on KOI-198 as unobtrusively as possible, seek out appropriately influential leadership, and warn them of dangers they currently had no concept of that their people may need to face. Not much was known about the Koians, but based on some surveillance probes the predominant sapient life form strongly resembled Terrans and Asgardians in appearance. This matched how Terra-like the planet seemed to be, though smaller and with a larger orbit (and therefore lower gravity with longer years). The rest of the group could lay low until friendly relations were established.

Objective two: Construct a small satellite based on schematics Nova Prime had sent, to be placed in outer space at a strategic location near KOI-198, to act as a warning system in case of invasion, and a way to signal for help if needed. Rocket was confident that he could make one. He would just need some additional raw materials that should be fairly simple to find on the planet with cooperation from locals.

_“And if they don’t cooperate, they don’t deserve the help.”_

_“I am Groot!”_

_“I was just kidding.”_

The _Milano_ was now finally approaching the vibrantly blue-green planet, which had two icy poles, one particularly immense desert, and some clustered mountains.

“How about we land in those mountains?” Peter Quill suggested. “Looks like some people live there.”

“Those are mostly volcanoes,” Nebula stated flatly. She’d taken charge of figuring out where to land, using a combination of the data they'd been sent and what the _Milano’s_ scanners were able to pick up. While never what anyone else considered cheerful, Nebula was actually feeling pretty good today by her standards. Gamora had sent her a private message from wherever she was, she’d beaten everyone else for the fourth time in the Terran game of “paper football”, and they were on a mission that felt like redemptive do-gooding rather than just surviving. “There’s a large city at the North Pole.”

Drax grumbled, “I don’t want to land in the arctic. The cold hurts my nipples.”

“Have you considered some kind of ointment for your recurring nipple problems?” Thor asked Drax genially. He’d arm-wrestled Quill for the right to use the bowflex machine yesterday, part of his new hobby of getting back into shape ever since they’d left Terra. Mantis knew Quill never thought he’d win against Thor, but he was unwilling to admit it.

Mantis was strapped in her seat, enjoying the view of the KOI moon, when she let out a little gasp.

“Oh no, what is it?” Rocket asked.

“This moon has a mind.”

Quill took his hands off the helm just so he could bury his face in his hands for two symbolic seconds. “Shit, not again.”

“It’s not like you think. It’s full of love. Also sadness, but mostly love. It’s worried about what we are. Hello, moon, we’re here to help your planet!” She waved at it.

Then, to everyone’s bewilderment, a shimmering shape began to take form outside the observation windows. At first it looked like a silver cloud. Then it morphed into what looked like a giant white fish made of...moonlight. Which “swam” in the void of space with increasing urgency.

The argument about whether to follow the thing or not took about twenty minutes and eventually came down to a vote: Quill, Rocket, and Nebula against, with Mantis, Thor, and Drax in favor. Groot reached out towards the moonfish with elongating branch arms, then murmured, “I _am_ Groot. _”_

“Then let’s follow the moonfish!” Thor announced.

“Traitor,” Rocket muttered, without any serious resentment. Groot smiled.

***

About four years and two months ago, Toph Beifong’s fresh new metalbending academy ran into what one might call a bit of a snag. She’d been leading training exercises when suddenly everyone started screaming, and her senses told her that somehow, several of the people who’d been in the courtyard with her were simply not there anymore. The remaining students told her that it looked like those who disappeared crumbled into dust first before blowing away. Nobody was in the mood for training after that. Not for a while. And a few days later, Zuko showed up on Appa’s back, hugged her with tight desperation, and asked her to return to his palace to help him hold things together. It wasn’t like his rule was totally stable yet after just over a year, and having half (half!) of his subjects vanish would tip the situation into chaos. Toph immediately went to pack. Zuko made sure Appa got food and water, but turned down any refreshments himself.

As Toph let Zuko give her a hand onto Appa’s back, she asked, “Wait, where’s Aang?”

After a pause, Zuko said, “He’s safe at my place. So’s Katara.”

“Okay.” She knew there was something he wasn’t telling her, but he also sounded close to falling into a million pieces himself.

It turned out Iroh was there at the palace, and so was Mai, otherwise Zuko would have probably completely lost it. Sokka wasn’t there. They said he was busy taking emergency leadership of the Southern Water Tribe after Hakoda, Gran-Gran, and Pakku all went poof. Nobody had heard from Suki. (About a week later, a letter arrived from Kyoshi. Mai read it to Toph in a flat voice, but Toph could hear the heartache in her heartbeat - not only had Suki vanished, but so had Ty Lee.)

Aang and Katara were there, sure, but it was like a repeat of their escape from Ba Sing Se all over again. Except instead of Katara desperately working to save Aang from a lightning strike, she was trying to get him to wake up. It wasn’t clear whether he’d gone to the Spirit World or whether he was in some kind of overwhelmed Avatar trance state.

_He screamed when the people started disappearing, Toph. He screamed and screamed, like he could feel everyone’s pain at the same time. He was shaking in my arms. I didn’t know what to do. I still don’t know._

Aang eventually woke up, but he was very quiet and spent a lot of his time searching the Spirit World or flying around their own world, looking for answers. Sometimes Toph went with him on the second kind of trip. Katara split her time between supporting her fiance and helping her people, especially her brother. Sometimes Toph hung out with her Fire buddies, detecting lies in meetings she sat in on and learning that Mai was actually pretty fun to spar with when she wasn’t being Azula’s lackey.

(Azula was gone too. And Ozai. Zuko got super cranky if anyone brought this up. Toph could sympathize. The very small possibility that they had escaped rather than vanished had to be driving him nuts.)

Toph eventually got restless and decided to travel on her own. No destination in mind. Her friends were worried but understanding, and made sure she had supplies. Sometimes she helped people out, like the old days. Other times she just focused on herself.

Four years passed, and suddenly everyone was back, reappearing exactly where they had disappeared. With no memory of anything from the moment of their disappearance until their reappearance. When Toph stopped by Omashu, there was a letter waiting for her inviting her to Sokka and Suki’s wedding in three months’ time. They understood if she wanted to get some things done first.

There was a month left to go, and Toph was slowly making her way to her hometown, just to check on it. Not that she was invested or anything. It’d just be nice. To check on it. Then she’d hitch a ride to the growing town in the ex-Fire Nation colonies that Zuko and Aang had plans for. A republic designed for citizens originating from all nations would be the perfect place for Water and Earth to meet.

This all had to wait, though, because when she stopped by a different town and met up with an old friend for lunch at a noodle shop, she got a request.

“We think they’re from the Spirit World,” Haru said, bouncing his leg nervously under the table. “Two of them. They look mostly human, but their features are strange. Larger eyes and broader noses. One has golden hair. And their skin is oddly pale and pinkish. They have been asking questions about the Avatar and the Fire Lord, things everyone should know. I was going to investigate myself, but I think I should have backup. My parents don’t want me to, as usual, but...”

“I wouldn’t normally say this, but I think you should listen to them. They went through enough after you vanished. I got this.” Toph finished slurping down a mouthful of noodles before saying, “But you gotta give me a description that doesn’t rely on seeing them.”

Haru smacked his own forehead. “Right, right, sorry. Uh, we’d love to have you over for dinner tonight?”

She fiddled with the brooch Zuko had insisted on giving her with his Lord-ly symbol on it to symbolize that he was under his symbolic protection. Symbolic because he knew she could handle herself. It was sweet of him and it cut down on arguments with minor authority figures she ran into, so she allowed it. “Sure. I’m glad you’re back, you know.”

“It’s so strange to see you as a seventeen-year-old all of a sudden,” Haru said, shyly. His heart was beating faster than normal, his pulse reverberating through the earthen floor down his feet and up hers.

That was interesting. He hadn’t acted like this towards her four years ago. But first things first.

***

The _Milano_ had been parked in a clearing in the woods, visually cloaked, for two days local time. Everyone still took shelter in it when they weren’t doing recon or getting a bit of exercise nearby. Or in Groot’s case, fresh sunlight.

Peter Quill took another sip of the local hooch they’d managed to buy. Fortunately, societies on this tech level usually liked gold, and he and Thor had traded a bar of it for more standard currency. It wasn’t bad, probably made from rice. “We had no way of knowing that none of them had ever seen white people before and would find us unsettling, okay? It’s making it harder to get information than you’d think. We know who the two most powerful people are on this planet, according to these people anyway, but we need a new strategy to figure out how to meet them.”

“You’re not white, you’re more of a peachy color,” Drax said, digging into a bag of dried salted plums Thor had picked up for him at the market as the merchants visibly cowered. Mantis was contentedly crunching through a similar bag of fried bamboo worms. Stupid Perfect Thor somehow knew what snacks everyone would like.

“It’s one of those things you call a metaphor,” Nebula said wearily. She was doing maintenance on one of her wrists, using an advanced screwdriver-type-thing held in the opposite hand. “Where’s Thor?”

“Out swinging Stormbreaker around for practice. He promised not to use lightning and draw attention. Groot’s hanging out with him, hopefully at a safe distance.” And Rocket was down below, “improving” the ship’s engine. It was better not to ask. The results were usually good. held up the bottle. “Want some?”

“I don’t metabolize ethanol in an enjoyable manner,” Nebula said. Ouch, that sounded like it sucked.

Then there was shouting and a lot of thudding sounds. The words were indistinct, but one of the voices sounded like Thor’s. Peter got to his feet. “Shit, did one of those earthbender dudes show up?” He would enjoy seeing Thor’s (admittedly aesthetically pleasing) ass get kicked a little bit, but he was still part of the team and deserved backup.

“Remember to be discreet about technology, as Nova Prime ordered,” Nebula said as she rapidly closed up her forearm and got to her feet.

Drax unsheathed his knives with obvious glee. “Not a problem.”

The squad found both Thor and Groot buried up to their necks in what looked liked personalized cones of rock. Stormbreaker was nowhere to be seen. A tiny teenage girl stood in front of them, dressed in a simple green shirt and brown pants, bare feet, and a red pin on her chest that looked like stylized flames.

As they approached, she didn’t turn her face towards them, but cocked her head as if to hear something better. “One of you has a lot of metal in your body. I’m not going to mess with it if you don’t give me a reason to, okay? I don’t want to hurt you. But if you don’t put down your weapons, I’m going to have to take them from you and toss them over with your big friend’s.”

Rocket’s eyes were on Groot, clearly upset despite Groot looking pretty placid about the whole thing. “And I’m just gonna stun ya, sweetie.”

“Wait, this might be like our fight with Strange and Stark and the spider child again,” Mantis said.

“Release the tree as a show of good faith, and we can talk,” Nebula said, hands not up, but at least empty and open. Not that this made her any less lethal. “He’s not a threat to someone of your abilities.”

Thor muttered, “What’s the point of magical weapons if someone can come out of nowhere and toss them elsewhere with magic, I nearly died making that thing, Groot gave up an arm, I can’t believe this...”

“Your ax thing is safe, I just buried it. You keep pulling towards you again. Are you a metalbender too? Lady-with-metal-parts, what do you mean by ‘tree’?” Peter caught sight of the girl’s eyes then. Milky, unfocused.

“This is a blind child,” Drax muttered, his hands wavering on the knife handles. Great, she just had to bring out his tragic paternal instincts, didn’t he? His big soft spot.

Peter was trying to decide what to do next when Rocket decided for them. Rocket whipped some kind of gun from its belt holster and shot it directly at her.

“No!” Mantis screamed, but it was too late. The girl threw up a wall to protect herself from the blast, then cracked her knuckles...

...Five minutes later, Peter was still getting through variations of _damn it, Rocket._ Because now all of them were disarmed, all encased up to their necks in varying degrees of rock and dirt that had been fused together smoothly.

“I’m not really the negotiating type. I heard you’ve been asking about the Avatar,” the girl said. “If all of you shut up right now I’ll let you keep your mouths free.”

Then she sat down on the ground in a lotus position, one fist pressed against one palm, and closed her eyes. “C’mon, Twinkle Toes, pay attention to your sifu. I have something for you to deal with.”

***

None of Aang’s trips to the Spirit World to try to find out where half the world’s population had gone had resulted in answers. The people had simply turned up again, unharmed, with a maddening lack of explanation.

He had learned one thing, though, in his many journeys to that other realm. Just as he’d once gotten a glimpse of Katara in trouble while he was meditating, he’d developed the ability to check up on some of the people he loved most from anywhere in the world. An Avatar had a special bond with his or her primary instructor in one of the elements, even if his bonds with Jeong Jeong and Pakku didn’t seem to be deep enough. He sometimes had odd dreams about dragons, though. It took some practice, but he’d learned how to see Katara, Toph, and Zuko in his mind’s eye, and taught them how to call for him anywhere in the world. It was limited in that they couldn’t pass actual messages back and forth, but at least he could see how they were. They’d also found a way to mentally shutter themselves and prevent Aang from peeking, after an...incident...shortly after Zuko’s wedding. Mai was very annoyed when she found out, even though Aang had closed the connection immediately.

Aang was headed back to the South Pole, where Katara was caring for her Gran-Gran. Thankfully, she was getting better. Katara split her time between the South Pole, traveling with Aang, and what was going to be Republic City, even if right now calling it “Democratic Town” would be generous. The Four Years of Loss had all but halted that project. Aang respected that Katara loved being by his side, but also needed to have a life outside of being the Avatar's Love. 

Momo was curled up on Appa's back and making little snuffly snores. All three were high up in the clouds. Aang suddenly felt a sort of itchy tingle in his feet. He always felt Katara in his chest and Zuko in his hands, so it was Toph who was calling. Aang clambered from Appa’s neck to his back to more securely get into a meditative pose. He only looked long enough to get a sense of where Toph was, because he needed to change course immediately.

***

Being a prisoner could be dreadfully boring sometimes. Especially being the prisoner of someone who wasn’t intending to kill you or make you fight someone else to the death soon. At least the latter two scenarios gave you the task of overcoming your fear. This was nothing but waiting. At first he had watched the girl make tiny figures out of rock and clay to amuse herself, but it was no longer diverting. She had invisibly wrestled with his efforts to summon Stormbreaker until he realized that fully breaking her hold on it might do her very serious harm. He didn't want to take that route during a diplomatic mission, so he had stopped fighting for now.

 _“Everybody was kung fu fighting,”_ Quill sang quietly, bobbing his head as best he could.

“Really?” Nebula asked, though it sounded more like she was asking the universe.

Thor remembered that song from a television commercial he’d seen many times with Korg and Miek during his darker days. Might as well join in; nothing better to do. _“Those cats were fast as lightning.”_

“Can Terran cats move as fast as lighting?” Drax asked, fascinated. “We weren’t there long enough. I still think we should have spent more time there after the funeral. The planet intrigued me.”

“Maybe that’s why _it was a little bit frightening,_ ” Rocket contributed.

Quill cleared his throat. “Uh, ma’am, you said you’re waiting for the Avatar to come talk to us. Do you have any idea how long that’ll take? It’s been hours.”

The wind suddenly picked up, dead leaves dramatically swirling, and they heard the roar of some great beast borne on the wind. “I see that you are the one who has expert timing,” Thor commented wryly. He wasn’t able to turn and see the beast, though Mantis looked very impressed by it.

“What’s going on, Toph?” said a youthful male voice. It sounded entirely ordinary. Kind.

“Heard some spirits were running amok. They tried to attack me -”

“It was a harmless warning,” Thor protested, though in reality the tiny bit of lightning had been because she’d startled him. It hadn’t hit her, as he hadn’t intended it to.

Toph turned her figurines back into earth and walked over to the friend she had called. “So I immobilized them. I don’t know anything about them, except one of them really wants everyone to know his name is Groot. You do the Avatar mumbo jumbo, your job, not my job. I’m late to dinner at Haru’s place. If I don’t see you there in three hours I’ll come back here. Gimme a hug for the road.”

“Wait, aren’t you going to let us out?” Quill protested.

“I will, once I know it’s safe.” The Avatar stepped into Thor’s view. He was young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, in loosely draped orange and yellow clothing, with a shaved head. Strange blue arrows followed the lines of his limbs as well as a single one spanning his skull, from nape to forehead and pointing down to his face. So far, the Guardians only knew that this Avatar could bend four “elements” rather than only one, and seemed to be some kind of spiritual leader. There were four significant political leaders, as well, but only the Fire Lord seemed to command the kind of awe and respect that made him sound like the best choice in that sphere. “Not everything from the Spirit World is friendly.”

Nebula cleared her throat. “Thor, you’re the one with relevant diplomatic training and the most trust from our...employer. Go on.”

If only Loki could see him now, making first official contact with a new planet and with the intent of peace, Thor thought with a pang. He slid back into the more formal mode of speech he used to use more often, before his life changed so drastically. He was willing to slip into some of his old persona if it would help. “We’re not from the Spirit World, Avatar, though we do come in the spirit of friendship. I am Thor, prince of Asgard. I and my companions are the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

“I’m the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy,” Quill said quickly. Oops, Thor had probably hurt his feelings again. He’d feel guilty if it wasn’t rather funny. “Star-Lord.”

The Avatar stared at Quill for a long, long time, and white light began to shine from his eyes and arrows. “Which stars? I feel like...I feel like...are you an Avatar of a world too? I always wondered if there were other worlds like ours.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Avatar,” Quill said, his voice shaking, and Thor didn’t know the context, but it sounded like he did have some idea.

The light faded from the Avatar’s eyes and arrows. He made a few gestures, and the rocks holding the Guardians crumbled into dust. Then he smiled, and it turned him from something godly to something boyish. “You can call me Aang, Star-Lord. Prince Thor. And friends! Let’s talk.”


End file.
